- Russia/England 06/02/2015 by Linda Perry (Amnesty UK)

NSA Whistleblower, Ed Snowden had a conversation with Amnesty International in the UK today, the day when the Senate here in the U.S. approved a bill which eliminates the National Security Agency's bulk phone collections program. Records will now stay within phone companies, with information subpoenaed if needed.  

Snowden spoke about changes since he first leaked information about the NSA's mass surveillance program. He experienced personal losses from the disclosures but says he thinks we have all benefited. 

In the two years since Snowden's revelations, newspapers around the world have published stories on government abuses. Snowden said with transparency, we get a different caliber of government, accountable to the public. 

"We want to have some level of intelligence gathering. We want to be able to investigate criminals. We want to be able to respond to military threats, but that's a far cry from watching everyone in society without regard to their guilt or innocence, to the mass surveillance of entire populations, rather than individual people."

Here's Ed Snowden, June 2, 2015